1:2:1 Podcast : Women's Health

Aspirin can check off one more box when it comes to prevention – a new study has found that women who took aspirin on a regular basis reduced their risk of developing melanoma by an average of 21 percent. The drug has already been shown to have protective effects on cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer in women, so these findings may play a more important role in strategies for preventing other kinds of cancer. In this podcast, Stanford dermatologist Jean Tang, MD, PhD, discusses the study and why, despite the promising results, she’s not ready to say that an aspirin a day will keep melanomas away.

A new study has found that for healthy women carrying a well-known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, estrogen therapy that could be beneficial. Women with the risk factor exhibited signs of accelerated biological aging. However, among at-risk women who used estrogen, the acceleration was absent. In this podcast, Natalie Rasgon, MD, PhD, director of the Stanford Center for Neuroscience in Women’s Health and a senior author of the study, discusses the findings and how the research may help determine the types of women who might benefit from hormone therapy.

Would you take part in a weight-loss program in which you were explicitly asked not to lose any weight for the first eight weeks? Stanford researchers conducted a study that showed women who mastered skills for maintaining their weight before they began a diet were better able to avoid regaining the weight. In this podcast, Michaela Kiernan, PhD, a senior research scientist at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and the lead author of the study, talks about the unorthodox “maintenance-first" approach and how it could help those who are trying to slim down and be healthier.